Soul Number Seventeen
by AlwaysPadfoot
Summary: Innocent souls are not for taking.


**AN:** For QLFC Round Four I got the character of a Dementor to write from the POV of. Exciting I know.

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 **Soul Number Seventeen**

 **AlwaysPadfoot**

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Number Seventeen is your first innocent soul. All the ones before this were dark, riddled with guilt, and you remember them all so well.

They say you never forget your first kiss; you never will.

You remember the calm; you remember thinking how easy this was. There was no need to care what he'd done; why he was your first soul. You recall his calm; his smirk; the way he stared right at you when you descended upon him to take his soul.

What a dark soul it was as well.

The man was brutal. As you consume his soul you realise he doesn't feel guilt; he feels justified in every single action he took. His soul is stained with torture, rape, and murder, and he doesn't give a shit about any of it. He's happy; he's content. You know he feels innocent even though his soul tells a different story. Either way he sits firm and just stares unresisting as you rip his soul from his body and he is left as just an empty shell.

After that you thought that everyone would be the same, but no, most of them scream, beg, and cry. Some fight so hard that it just lengthens the process of swallowing their soul. Most of them seek forgiveness; they'll never get it. You know once you have their souls they will never move on; they will be suck forever empty unless you are expunged from existence. That never happens.

But then you reach him: number seventeen.

He reminds you of your first somewhat. He's calm in a way you don't quite understand, but you can see him vibrating, you feel the terror like no other before. His guilt is different; he's not seeking forgiveness; he's guilty because he's leaving his family and his friends.

You hover; laying in wait for the signal that you can kiss him. The human reading the final words you'll victim will ever hear stands behind a wall of magic you can never pass through.

 _Caelum Rowle. You have been sentenced to the Dementor's Kiss for the crimes of torture and eleven counts of murder. After your soul has been taken your body will be put into a stasis from which you will never awaken. It will lie in the basements of Azkaban forever. Please, if you have any final words, say them now._

Caelum's head rises a little. His face is drawn; his cheeks hollow; his eyes are dark. His pale skin shimmers a little in the moonlight and then he whispers the words that you will ultimately remember for decades to follow.

" _With no soul I can no longer feel pain."_

And that was all. Generally humans begged for forgiveness, for mercy, for you not to consume them. With one hand the man behind the wall of magic raises his arm towards you and says the final words of his scripted speech. This he lowers his hand like the final descent of an axe and you swoop down towards Caelum Rowle.

As soon as you draw close he feeds you with his worst memories. You know from the start they're different. They're filled with horror and fear and inconsolable crying. They have no rage; no extreme actions. They are not of torture, or of murder. You see him waking up and you see him surrounded by the bodies a room full of people. Some of them he knows; his memories twist in fear and shock. He cries a lot, and you hesitate in your consumption because this is not normal.

He is innocent.

It's not your job to decide right or wrong but you feel a different form of darkness filling you alongside the black of the sixteen other souls that came before Caelum.

Caelum stares up at you. His eyes start to gaze from the edges as his soul starts to ascend from the core of his body. He starts to choke and you rush to kiss him. You want it to be over faster for him because the whole process feels unjust. His soul taste sweet instead of the bitter you're used to. An orb of blue emerges from his mouth and his back arches as his body automatically reaches to try and take his soul back.

You kiss harder and snatch up the blue light faster than you have ever done before.

Caelum's body slumps back into the chair with a resounding thump and you rise backwards away from him. You took at his eyes. The way they're glazed and empty, and you feel something you can't explain.

The light of his soul makes you feel odd. There's something about it that feels so much different than the darkness of the murderers and sadists that you've been ordered to consume before. It doesn't hurt so much; you just feel the humanity for once. You feel Caelum Rowle's humanity seeping into every area of the darkness within you. It's already changing you; you can feel yourself changing.

His empty body is moved and you hover in the ceiling of the room, trying to understand. But it's obvious to you. You shouldn't have this feeling inside of you. That light should not be in with all the darkness.

You know the innocent souls are not for taking.

You never want one ever again.


End file.
